Numerical Simulation of Reinforced Granular Soils Using DEM

This paper explores the potential of Discrete Element Simulation (DEM) to model the behavior of reinforced granular soils. Biaxial element test were carried out on these assembles with and with out horizontal reinforcement layers to understand the behavior of reinforced granular soils from grain scale level. Numerical simulations were carried out using PFC2D with assemblies of 1800 uni sized circular particles of size 0.1 mm. In the current investigation, reinforcing element was modeled by a chain of circular particles by assigning contact bond between particles horizontally at all predetermined contact locations. Influence of parameters such as number of reinforcement layer, thickness and packing geometry on the behavior of reinforced granular materials were studied and reported.